NEW ROAD IS TOO COSTLY?

STRANDED.... some villagers of Pensiangan giving a helping hand to pull the stranded station wagon of the Ministry of Health out of the muddy track leading to their village.

KOTA KINABALU : Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) wants the State government to explain why the construction of the new road leading to the State Legislative Assembly building is so costly.

Its Information Chief Chong Pit Fah said the construction of the 0.9-Km long road, at a whopping cost of RM14.9 million.

He said ever since its construction cost was unveiled in the news of its official opening by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman on the first day sitting of the State Legislative Assembly came out, he has been receiving complaints from many disgruntled members of the public who were outraged by the construction cost.

“Some of them even asked if the road is paved with marble blocks instead of asphalt. And some who are in infrastructure construction business said such a short length of road should not cost more than RM9 million to build.

“The present Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) Government and the Sabah Public Works Department (PWD) owed the people a full explanation on why it is so expensive,” he said.

In a statement issued here today, Chong also dismissed the explanation given by Sabah PWD Director Datuk John Anthony that the swampy land required landfill work, describing it as lame.

He contended that landfill work should not have contributed to such a high cost, given the fact that the area involved is not big.

Chong also challenged the PWD to make public its detailed account for the said project, so as to clear the doubts and suspicion of irregularities in the people’s mind.

John was quoted as saying that the construction of the road amounting to RM14.9 million was started on Oct 28, 2010 and it was expected to be fully completed in October this year.

“This swampy land requires landfill work and the contractor has only completed the landscaping, installing of street lights and building a guard post. We expect all work to be completed as scheduled,” he said.

John said the new road would help ease congestion of traffic on the road to the State Legislative Assembly building, in particular when the Sabah Administrative Centre in the area is completed.

Besides this, Chong also said the State government should have better used the said money to upgrade those roads in the interior of Sabah, some of which are in depressing condition and impassable not only for ordinary vehicles but also four-wheel-drive vehicles.

To substantiate this, he also attached a file photo showing a station wagon of the Ministry of Health which got stranded in a muddy track, during a visit to a remote village in Pensiangan, late last year.